


Emotional Labor

by peccadilloes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Power Exchange, Seattle, Sex Magic, Sex Work, Wizard Modern Art, Wizard Rock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 00:06:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17518421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peccadilloes/pseuds/peccadilloes
Summary: Cal saw a lot of clients. Graeme was the only one who never paid.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Minuet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427546) by [fluorescentgrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluorescentgrey/pseuds/fluorescentgrey). 
  * Inspired by [Circle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8298139) by [RuinsPlume](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuinsPlume/pseuds/RuinsPlume). 



Cal saw a lot of clients. Graeme was the only one who never paid. 

Maybe a lot was an overstatement, but Graeme himself was a lot: a demanding, pitiful bottom who didn't even notice if Cal liked what he was doing or not.

Cal left the painting to dry on the floor. He put his brushes in the sink.

To fuck someone that hard and horribly, to hurt whatever it was inside them that needed readjustment _vis a vis_ soothing pain and to know while doing so that the sore burn afterward would sustain them through the motions of life for a few more days--that could be construed as payment if need be.

Better than being a muse backed into the corner of inspiration without creation.

A few strokes of color, an orgasm if he squinted sideways and let the power he didn't want to have anyway drop into his dick and move forward into Graeme who needed it for something else. Cal wouldn't hate himself for the work.

"Internalize that or you'll lose your courage," he told Graeme after he rolled him over on his back and examined him prone and too needy to be desperate.

*

"Why is this the scene you're always replaying," Cal didn't say. Instead, as always with Graeme, he chose to be generous: "It's okay to be powerless."

He left Graeme in the bathtub and went outside to the bodega without his coat.


	2. Chapter 2

Sometime between the day Wray died and the moment Graeme decided to move on to Lockett so they could performatively not-but-almost kill themselves together, Cal hit it big.

He was on wizard NPR and got interviewed by several vampires, but the only real problem was a witch at _Juxtapoz:Wizard!_ was calling him all the time.

"I don't fuck witches for money," Cal said to her repeatedly on the Floo, phone, two-way mirror.

Finally she kicked a hole in one of his paintings at a gallery, and he consented to an interview. It was his first for a print magazine.

"Why are you so scared of me?" she said when he let her into his apartment. He tugged open the blinds, and they sat down on the couch to discuss his paintings.

"It's almost like I can hear color, but I'm ashamed about it because--" Cal was saying when a bit of shuffling in the hallway and mustered up knocking on the door indicated he'd now have to be dealing with Graeme. "Hold on a sec."

Graeme's belt was undone and his fly already open. He startled when he saw the witch.

"She's a journalist," Cal said. "Zip your pants up." He touched Graeme in the small of his back to communicate everything else: that he wouldn't leave Graeme standing there or turn him away, that he was always safe here, and that it was okay to want to be touched.

"Oh," Graeme said. "Right. I'll--be in your bedroom."

Cal went back to the witch.

She said, "Do you fuck him?"

Cal shrugged. "He only falls for other bottoms, and he won't top."

The witch nodded and exhaled sharply through her nose. Cal smiled. She was looking at him instead of at anything else. Together they sat quietly listening to Graeme take it out on Cal's bed then settle.

"Is he sleeping?" she said, finally.

Cal shrugged. Life was full of possibilities. "What's your name again?" he said.

She shook her head and kissed him.

*

Cal opened the door to his room a few hours later. At some point Graeme had gotten up and peed and was now sitting cross-legged on Cal's bed, reading Cal's diary.

"A bottom?" Graeme said.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Cal said. He sat down on his bed. "C'mere," he said. He helped Graeme lift his shirt over his head then pulled him close. He kissed Graeme's neck. "I can only give you so much of what you need."

"It's alright," Graeme said, relaxing. "I'll take it."

Cal held him and showered him with tiny kisses. After a while, he said, "Why don't you go ahead and lie down on your stomach."

*

Graeme was in the bathtub, draining the water and running it hot again.

Cal walked in. "Are you hungry?" he said. "I'm looking for my coat."

"I took it," Graeme said.

"No, you didn't," Cal said.

Graeme grinned wickedly, then his gaze slipped and his face softened. "Yes, I'll eat something. Alex said when people offer--"

"--you always have to say yes," Cal soothed him, "I know. Good boy. Thank you."

Graeme looked Cal in the eye again. "Thank you," he said.

Call shook his head. "I'll be right back," he said. He left Graeme in the bathtub and went outside to the bodega without his coat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty sarinah!!!!
> 
> [Tei Shi performing "Bassically" live on KCRW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVfNcCIsRs)


End file.
